Wednesday, November 13, 2013

UPDATE: we filed an Amended petition on Nov. 22. The date in court is now Jan. 10.

This morning, the law firm Pitta and Giblin
LLP sued Commissioner King and the Board of Regents in NY State Supreme
Court on behalf of twelve NYC parents, and asked for a restraining order to stop the
unnecessary, unprecedented
and illegal disclosureof the personal
information of millions of New York State’s public school students to a corporation called inBloom Inc. In turn, the purpose of inBloom is to provide this information to for-profit vendors, so they can data-mine and develop their software products.

Our press release is
here and below, along with links to the legal briefs.The lawsuit contends that these disclosures violate the Personal Privacy Protection Law, a New York law passed in 1984, that forbids any state
agency from sharing personally identifiable information with third parties without
consent, unless it is necessary and authorized by law.

As I said to the Daily News, parents have been asking for a year now how and when
they would be able to protect their kids’ privacy. I’m hoping this is the
beginning of the end of inBloom in New York State.

Hearings are scheduled in Albany on December
6. If you want to stay updated, be sure to sign up for our newsletter on our website.

LAWSUIT FILED IN NY STATE COURT TO PROTECT STUDENT
PRIVACY AND BLOCK INBLOOM

This morning,
Wednesday November 13, a lawsuit and a request for a restraining order will be
filed in the New York State Supreme Court in Albany against Commissioner of
Education John B. King and the Board of Regents, to prevent them from releasing
any personal student information to the corporation known as inBloom Inc.
The lawsuit, filed by attorneys at the firm Pitta & Giblin
LLP, representing twelve New York City public school parents, is based
upon the claim that the disclosure of any child’s personally identifiable data
without parental consent violates the Personal Privacy Protection Law, approved by the New York State Legislature in
1984. The law enjoins any state agency from providing personally
identifiable information to third parties without consent, unless this is
necessary to operate a program specifically authorized by statute.The request for a temporary restraining order
is here: http://shar.es/8uA17, the memo of law is here: http://shar.es/8uA4a

InBloom Inc.,
established by a $100 million dollar grant from the Gates Foundation, was
designed as a multi-state data store, to collect and format personal student
data and make it available to vendors to help them data mine, develop and
market their software learning products. After protests from parents and
privacy experts, seven out of the nine original inBloom states have now pulled
out of the project or put their data-sharing plans on hold. Only New York
and Illinois remain involved, and unlike New York, Illinois is allowing
districts to decide whether they want to participate. The information to
be shared with inBloom and other vendors will include the names of all public
and charter school students, their addresses, phone numbers, emails, grades,
test scores, race and economic status, disability and health diagnoses, their
attendance and suspension records, and any services they receive. The
data is to be stored on a vulnerable cloud run by Amazon.com, with an operating
system built by Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corporation.

Leonie
Haimson, the Executive Director of Class Size Matters, who has called attention
to the state’s data sharing plan, said: “Commissioner King has ignored the
protests of thousands of parents who have urged him to drop this plan and begged him to protect their children’s highly
sensitive information. They have been joined by a growing chorus of school
board members and Superintendents throughout the state who say that his
data-sharing plan is not only unnecessary, it poses huge and unprecedented
risks. I want to thank President Santos Crespo and the
Executive Board of AFCSME Local 372 – NYC Board of Education employees, for supporting this lawsuit and
fighting to protect student privacy. It is intolerable that the state
continues to ignore the pleas of parents. We call on Governor Cuomo, who has
remained silent, to call for a halt to this unethical and dangerous plan.”

Karen
Sprowal, the mother of a fifth grader in a New York City public school and a
petitioner in the lawsuit said, “Ever since I’ve heard about inBloom Inc. I’ve
been unable to rest easy. My son has special needs and I have to partner
closely with his school and his doctors to ensure that he receives the services
he requires. Up to now, his confidential
records have been protected by his principal, the school’s nurse and
psychologist, but now the state intends to provide this highly private
information to vendors, without consulting me or asking for my
permission. Any information that is let loose on the internet can
never be retrieved, and any breach or misuse of this data could harm his
prospects for life, by impairing his ability to be admitted to college or get a
good job. Commissioner King’s has shown a dismissive attitude towards the
concerns of parents and indifference to the dangers facing my son and more than
three million other children enrolled in the state’s public schools. I
pray that the court heeds our concerns and takes action to prevent this
unethical and illegal plan.”

“As a parent
of a child with autism, I am appalled by the intention of the New York State
Education Department to override my parental rights and bypass my desire to
safeguard my child’s sensitive data. Commissioner King’s plan to disclose this
data to inBloom and other vendors is akin to my doctor sharing my son’s medical
records without my consent. I trust that the court will uphold my right
and the right of all parents to weigh the risks and decide for themselves who
should have access to their children’s most personal information,” said Lisa
Rudley, one of the founders of the statewide coalition NY State Allies for
Public Education and Director of Education Policy for Autism Action.

I have 3 middle school children, one with special needs, i absolutely do not understand why they would need all this information. I have had my childs medical information that i gave freely (stupidly) to the district in the past and it was misused. I cant even imagine what they would do if i voluntarily gave them everything Inbloom wants. Thank you for fighting this! It's only right.

If Bill Gates is funding inBloom and privacy violations to American school children then I think parents need to start investigating Bill Gates. He needs to have his privacy violated to understand how we parents feel. Let's post pictures of his home and post his address for all to see, let's dig into his tax records, let's monitor who goes in and out of his home, let's monitor his kids and their friends as well; let's dig for dirt so Mr. Money Bags, who thinks he can do whatever he wants, understands how we feel about him invading OUR privacy and the privacy of our MINOR children! I stand in solidarity with New York parents in this lawsuit objecting to inBloom student privacy violation.

As a parent of a student who has had support since the age of 2 and is now a beautiful, highly functional middle school student, I have to say thank you for going the distance. This short sighted initiative is going to come back and penalize taxpayers as kids who have had support will not be able to get health insurance because of psych problems they had as children and their opportunities for employment will be decreased. We will be supporting these future adults as they will not be allowed to support themselves.

I hope this accounts for all of NY State! As a parent in Western NY, I am thankful for the progress being made to protect my children's information. It does note that it is a number of districts in NYC, I would like them to expand it to include all of NY.

Commissioner King and his deceitful cronies including the Syracuse City Schools Superintendent are so incompetent. I wonder if their is some financial nepotism or compensation for their decisions. My kids will not be taking be taking these ridiculous tests this year.

Thank you for supporting a student's right to privacy! We need to fight for our rights - whatever happened to the FERPA Law? If inBloom is allowed, what will the government be able to do with citizens' information next? Keep fighting!